Today's Song of the Day, featured as part of our Music Heals: Mental Health programming, is "mama's baby" by Orion Sun, a 2020 self-released single.
Philadelphia-based songwriter Orion Sun’s latest single, “mama’s baby,” was written after experiencing police brutality during a protest earlier this year in late May. Thrown into the ground multiple times and her arm twisted, she left with not just physical injuries but emotional pain from the trauma she lived.
As she details in the description on her Bandcamp page, it took her some time to recover and process what happened to her. Some healing finally came as she turned to music. Less than a week after the event, she recorded and released “mama’s baby” with proceeds going to Breonna Taylor’s GoFundMe page. She explains the writing process below:
“i've been in pain physically and emotionally but upon completing this song a wave of peace came over me. it was the first time my anxiety subsided in a long while and i thought if this did that for me then it might for other people. i want to share this song with you today in hopes that you can find some peace during this time. even when people can look at the world burning and feel nothing because the fire hasn't touched their skin, there are people feeling deeply and fighting in their own important way for the change that is inevitable. keep your head up and breathe and know that evil will never prevail long enough to be forever.”
The hum of turntable needle wavers above Sun’s plaintive keyboard and the steady roll of her voice. Echoes and reverb come in and out of the mix, but Sun stays constant and hardly ever raises her voice or deviates from the soothing melody. “I’ve seen it all, it don’t affect me,” she repeats on the song before ending with, “I mean we all pass on, at least respect me.” While there is a mournful sorrow ruminating in the track, that sense of peace resonates throughout like a slow exhale.
In conjunction with KEXP’s upcoming Music Heals: Mental Health, we’re asking Song of the Day artists to spotlight a different organization. Sun has chosen the Loveland Foundation. Loveland Foundation supports healing and mental health services for communities of color, with a particular focus on Black women and girls, including giving financial assistance for therapy, offering fellowships, residency programs, and more.
